Plastic Waste Recycling Plant is the process of recovering scrap or waste PLASTIC and reprocessing the material into useful products. This helps to reduce the high rates of plastic pollution.

Plastic Waste Recycling Plant includes taking any type of plastic sorting it into different polymers and then chipping it and then melting it down into pellets after this stage it can then be used to make items of any kind such as plastic chairs and tables. Soft Plastics are also recycled such as polyethylene film and bags.

Another barrier to recycling is the widespread use of dyes, fillers , and other additives in plastics. The polymer is generally too viscous to economically remove fillers, and would be damaged by many of the processes that could cheaply remove the added dyes. Additives are less widely used in beverage containers and plastic bags , allowing them to be recycled more often.

The percentage of plastic that can be fully recycled, rather than down cycled or go to waste can be increased when manufacturers of packaged goods minimize mixing of packaging materials and eliminate contaminants. The Association of Plastics Recyclers have issued a Design Guide for Recyclability.

The use of biodegradable plastic is increasing.

Other processes

A process has also been developed in which many kinds of plastic can be used as a carbon source in the recycling of scrap steel. There is also a possibility of mixed recycling of different plastics, which does not require their separation. It is called Compatibiization and requires use of special chemical bridging agents compatibilizers. It can help to keep the quality of recycled material and to skip often expensive and inefficient preliminary scanning of waste plastics streams and their separation/purification.

Applications

PET

Main article: PET bottle recycling

Post-consumer Polyethylene (PET or PETE) containers are sorted into different color fractions, and baled for onward sale. Non-PET fractions such as caps and labels are removed during this process. The clean flake is dried. Further treatment can take place e.g. melt filtering and pelletizing or various treatments to produce food-contact-approved recycled PET (RPET).

RPET has been widely used to produce polyester fibers. This sorted post-consumer PET waste is crushed, chopped into flakes, pressed into bales, and offered for sale.

One use for this recycled PET that has recently started to become popular is to create fabrics to be used in the clothing industry. The fabrics are created by spinning the PET flakes into thread and yarn. This is done just as easily as creating polyester from brand new PET. The recycled PET thread or yarn can be used either alone or together with other fibers to create a very wide variety of fabrics. Traditionally these fabrics are used to create strong, durable, rough, products, such as jackets, coat, shoes, bags, hats, and accessories since they are usually too rough for direct skin contact and can cause irritation.

Most polystyrene products are currently not recycled due to the lack of incentive to invest in the compactors and logistical systems required. As a result, manufacturers cannot obtain sufficient scrap. Expanded polystyrene (EPS) scrap can easily be added to products such as EPS insulation sheets and other EPS materials for construction applications. When it is not used to make more EPS, foam scrap can be turned into clothes hangers, park benches, flower pots, toys, rulers, stapler bodies, seedling containers, picture frames, and architectural molding from recycled PS.